SEQUIM — Project Lifesaver, a system the Sequim Police Department uses to find missing elderly and disabled residents, is expanding thanks to a local family, Police Chief Robert Spinks announced Monday.
The Guerin family of Sequim donated $20,000 in 2006 so the department could buy the equipment — radio receivers and transmitting bracelets — and then contributed another $20,000 last June.
The family made a third $20,000 gift to the Sequim Police about a month ago, and Spinks decided it was high time to publicly thank the Guerins.
At Monday night’s Sequim City Council meeting, the chief said about 30 people are now enrolled in Project Lifesaver, and added that since 2006, the radio system has enabled officers and Sequim police volunteers to find six people who were missing.
Project Lifesaver bracelets are worn by clients with Alzheimer’s disease, autism or a developmental disability, and transmit signals to radio receivers carried by the officers, Spinks explained.
So if they wander off, police can find him or her in a matter of minutes.
Spinks presented a plaque to Guerin family member Linda Gooch, and hailed the Sequim Police Department volunteers for their efforts.
Without them, he said, it would take much longer to find Project Lifesaver clients who have disappeared — and passing time can be deadly in extreme weather.
The Sequim Police run the only Project Lifesaver system on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Spinks, in an e-mail to the Peninsula Daily News, said that the program is stretching over new territory, owing to the Guerins’ most recent donation.
“We now partner with [Clallam County] Fire District No. 3 and will be including the [Clallam] Sheriff’s Office for the east end of the county,” he said.
So along with Sequim residents, people who live between the city and the Clallam-Jefferson county line will be able to enroll.
To find out about registering someone with Alzheimer’s or another disability in Project Lifesaver, phone the Sequim Police Department at 360-683-7227.
Also on Monday, the City Council authorized an additional $12,000 toward the remodeling of the Sequim Police Department’s offices and facilities at 609 W. Washington St.
Since Sequim has yet to allocate funds to build the entirely new police station that Spinks and other city officials believe is needed, the existing offices in the J.C. Penney shopping center are being renovated on a budget of $300,000.
Of that, the City Council last year authorized $14,455 for architectural services from the Seattle firm Arai Jackson Ellison Murakami.
To move forward, dimensioned drawings and specifications were needed, according to city capital projects manager Frank Needham. Arai Jackson estimated those would cost up to $25,000.
Port Angeles-based architect Mike Gentry offered to provide the drawings for $6,000, so the city chose him.
Then another $6,000 in unanticipated expenses cropped up — including installation of a bullet-resistant wall — bringing the architectural services bill to $26,455.
Burkett acknowledged that this was well above what the council had originally authorized, and said he wouldn’t be asking for such extra funding on future projects.
With that, the council voted unanimously to fund the additional spending.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladaily news.com.
